COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Jan. 23, 2008) – The USA Volleyball High Performance Coaches’ Clinic attracted 190 attendees who learned from some of the most brilliant volleyball minds in the world Jan. 17-20 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. In conjunction with the clinic, USA Volleyball Coaching Accreditation Program (CAP) conducted several sessions toward the CAP Level I and II certification.

Among the presenters were former Russian women’s volleyball coach Nikolay Karpol as the keynote presenter, U.S. Men’s National Team Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon and U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach “Jenny” Lang Ping. Both Karpol and Lang Ping have earned Olympic Games medals as coaches, while McCutcheon and Lang Ping are taking their respective teams to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Jeri Estes, who has held assistant coaching positions with both Team USA and Russian national women’s teams, translated for Karpol and presented drills the two coaches use while serving as co-head coaches of the Russian professional women’s team Uralochka-NTMK. As Lang Ping focused on an open training session of the U.S. Women’s National Team for the attendees, assistant coach Sue Woodstra illustrated to the attendees reasons behind each drill.

“The 2008 USA Volleyball HP Coaches’ Clinic continued its tradition of being one of highest quality, most diverse coaches’ clinics in the country,” said Tom Pingel, USA Volleyball managing director of indoor high performance. “Any time you can pull together as many coaches with as much coaching experience at the very top of the game – be it Olympic, World Championship or NCAA Championship levels – the results will prove to be interesting and exciting. There is no reason to believe that the 2009 Clinic won’t be every bit as popular as past clinics.”

“The HP Coaches Clinic continues to provide high-level educational opportunities from international masters of the game,” said Doug Beal, USA Volleyball chief executive officer. “It was wonderful to have Nikolay Karpol, Lang Ping, Hugh McCutcheon as part of an impressive list of presenters contributing to the same event, sharing their insight and knowledge of the game to our attendees. USA Volleyball is committed to provide high-level educational opportunities, and this event provides an avenue to learn from the top international leaders of our game.”

Seven coaches extended their stays in Colorado Springs through Jan. 22 to learn Data Project’s Data Volley and Data Video components, as well as the FIVB’s Volleyball Information System (VIS).

“The Data Project and VIS Clinic this past weekend was a first step in getting additional coaches, statisticians and volleyball administrators involved in the statistical side of USA Volleyball,” said Monica Paul, USA Volleyball associate director of events. “There are numerous opportunities at World League, NORCECA, HP Championships and Junior Olympic events, and we hope to continue to offer training sessions for those interested in contributing to USA Volleyball programs.”

In addition to the HP Coaches’ Clinic gym sessions viewing a U.S. Women’s National Team practice and the Perfection of Defense Actions presented by Estes, Bill Neville presented Teaching the Jump Serve, McCutcheon discussed Managing Risk in Volleyball, Rod Wilde presented Blocking Strategies and John Kessel talked about the Competitive Cauldron Applied with demonstration athletes from Stellar Volleyball Club.

Among the classroom sessions provided in the clinic were High Performance Pipeline reports from the four programs that competed at the 2007 FIVB World Championships, the Russian Volleyball System (Karpol, Estes), Team Chemistry Building (Hugh McCutcheon), Tendencies of the World Volleyball Development and Coaches’ Role in Modern Volleyball (Karpol, Estes), Boys’ Growth Initiatives (Jeff Mosher, McCutcheon), High Performance Physical Training (Allen Hedrick), Karpol’s Team Model and Organization of the Game (Karpol, Estes), Game Preparation and Team Building Concepts (Shelton Collier) and Video Scouting and Match Preparation (Jamie Morrison, Kevin Hambly).

The USA Volleyball High Performance Department also hosted several closed national and regional pipeline classroom sessions. In addition, the clinic initiated smaller group breakout meetings led by HP coaches throughout the weekend to provide immediate input.